1. Field of the Invention.
This invention has relation to apparatus for crushing cylindrical cans having frangible side walls, and more specifically to crushing empty, used, aluminum beverage cans.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
It is well known to crush empty beverage cans by squeezing them between two plates. See U.S. Pat. No. 2,128,630 granted Aug. 30, 1938; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,780 granted Nov. 4, 1975. Also well known is to crush such cans along their longitudinal axes between an anvil and a ram, and when crushed, allowing the cans to drop out from between the ram and anvil into a storing or receiving receptacle below. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,593 granted May 26, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,169 granted June 18, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,350 granted Dec. 31, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,108 granted Oct. 2, 1984; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,265 granted Aug. 19, 1986.
A great majority of these prior art devices utilize a reciprocating ram which slides in a semicylindrical compaction chamber driven by a ram rod or connecting rod pivoted to a crank arm extending radially outwardly from a crankshaft. See the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,817,169; 4,561,350; 4,474,108; and 4,606,265, for example.
A common design problem in all such apparatus has been the means for delivering the cans to be crushed one at a time into the compaction chamber. The solution to this problem has, heretofore, resulted in bulky, cumbersome, expensive apparatus which occupies an unwarranted amount of space for accomplishing a necessary but relatively minor income producing and metal reclaiming function.
All of the prior art patents referred to above are designed to be freestanding, thus taking up floor space or counter space.
What was lacking before the present invention was an aluminum can crusher which can either be freestanding on a countertop or floor where space is available or can be supported on the top rim of a garbage can or cylindrical trash can or the like. Also lacking was such a crusher which ran on a continuous cycle, into which cans could be inserted at any point in that cycle, and whereby the timing for admitting plural cans into a compression chamber one at a time is accomplished directly from a crankshaft crank arm structure by the simple expedient of immobilizing by impaling the next-to-be-crushed can until the can between the ram and the anvil is crushed and allowed to drop from the apparatus.